Woman credited for calling in smoke scare in Battle Ground

Smoke coming from an abandoned nursing home in the heart of Battle Ground prompted a two-alarm fire call Sunday evening.The elusive source was a burning mattress inside the U-shaped building at 103 N. Parkway Ave., across from Battle Ground High School.A woman saw smoke and called 911 at 4:58 p.m., said Battalion Chief Tim Dawdy of Fire Clark Fire & Rescue.“They’ve had problems with transients going inside,” Dawdy said.When firefighters could not find the source of the smoke, which was throughout the building, a second alarm was called.Soon after, the mattress was discovered.“It was deep inside the building,” Dawdy said.About 30 firefighters from Clark County Fire & Rescue, Fire District 3 and Vancouver Fire responded, but many were called back after the mattress was found.Dawdy said it could have been worse than simply smoke in the building.“There’s a nice apartment community here, and those people were very concerned,” he said.He said the building has been repossessed by a credit union, and the structure has been in disrepair.A Clark County fire marshal and Battle Ground police are investigating. Firefighters stayed on the scene until about 8 p.m.Dawdy said he was grateful the woman called in when she saw smoke.“This could have been a real big deal,” he said.